Thursday, May 30, 2013

The Dodgers held their breath Wednesday night. They weren’t sure what else to do.

All they knew for certain was, Matt Kemp injured his right hamstring. Kemp and hamstring equaled nothing but bad news last year.

And although this is the other leg, and they won’t know the severity of his injury until after an MRI scheduled for Thursday, they knew it was bad news. They just weren’t certain how bad.

Dodgers vice president of medical services, Stan Conte, told Mattingly it was a mild strain. Still…

“I guess I shouldn’t say it, but anytime you hear the dreaded hamstring word, usually it lasts a little bit,” Mattingly said. “But Stan was saying it was mild. Hopefully Matt caught himself before he got it good.”

That was hopefully the good news for the Dodgers. Kemp injured the hamstring in the seventh inning Wednesday night chasing a Mike Trout double into the right-field cap.

At double-A Chattanooga, there is the heralded Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson.

Puig has all the intrigue, the Cuban man-child who tore it up this spring (.517 batting, .828, 22, slugging) and became a camp sensation. But Puig has played only two games in center for Chattanooga, and the Dodgers are concerned about his maturity.

Lets get through the MRI first (join the Sue Falsone club, Matt!). Then we'll see if we start calling "suey".